Vigilance arrests ACP, aide taking Rs 25k bribe from scrap dealer

The Punjab vigilance bureau here on Wednesday claimed to have arrested Ludhiana-south assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Baldev Singh Chauhan and alleged go-between Pappu while they were accepting Rs 25,000 as bribe from a scrap dealer whom the ACP had reportedly threatened with false cases.

The Punjab vigilance bureau here on Wednesday claimed to have arrested Ludhiana-south assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Baldev Singh Chauhan and alleged go-between Pappu while they were accepting Rs 25,000 as bribe from a scrap dealer whom the ACP had reportedly threatened with false cases.

The scrap dealer, Rakesh Kumar, had approached the VB after Punjab Police Service (PPS) officer Chauhan, who is due to retire this October, asked for Rs 1 lakh from him through his accomplice Pappu, said the bureau. As the VB had reportedly received certain complaints against Chauhan, who is posted at Focal Point, earlier too, a trap was planned around three days ago upon Rakesh's complaint.

The original bribe amount was brought down to Rs 50,000 in a bargain struck by Pappu; half the amount was to be given to the ACP on Wednesday and the rest the next day, it is alleged. According to superintendent of police (SSP), vigilance, Satinder Pal Singh, who led the trap at Sherpur Chowk in Ludhiana, "Pappu, a resident of Iqbal Nagar locality, had approached Rakesh on behalf of Chauhan and struck the deal."

On Wednesday morning, Rakesh was given some currency marked with a reddening agent that Chauhan and Pappu allegedly collected from him near Sherpur Chowk, at which the VB team arrested the two men. A case under the Prevention of Corruption Act was lodged.

"After the arrest, another scrap dealer approached us and alleged that Chauhan had taken Rs 30, 000 from him some days ago," said the SSP.

It is also learnt that some top officers even in the police department knew that the VB was after Chauhan for the past three days.